Wednesday Night Races are intended to be fun races that are simple to participate in and simple to run. One way we can make them simpler is to eliminate the starting horn completely. You will continue to use your starting time listed on the starting times sheet, but instead of waiting for a horn to start your countdown, you will use 6:15:00 as the "zero starting time." Just synchronize your watch to the "atomic clock" in the Hamilton Creek clubhouse or use the Official US Time at http://www.time.gov/ or http://time.gov/widget/widget.html. When the official time reaches 6:15:00, start your countdown just like you would if we used a horn. You can also put a link to the Official US Time Widget on your smartphone and use that to synchronize your watch. With this system, there’s no more "who's got the horn" or "was that the first or second horn". Less confusion, more fun! And since you won’t have to get there early to hear a horn, you can leave the dock a little later and still get to the starting line on time.

One Starting Sequence:

In addition to the new starting time and "no horn" system, we have changed back to using the same starting time sequence for both non-spinnaker and spinnaker boats. We have been able to tweak the starting times so that faster boats will not have to wait so long to start. We will still score non-spinnaker and spinnaker separately, but they will be racing each other on the course and on the clock. This should make it more interesting for everyone!